Reply With QuoteRich, I have no idea on the boat make, but that is a damn cool story.
It's no secret that I like old boats, but that's no big deal on the boards here, lots of guys like old boats too.
(sorry delawaredave, this might be a long winded post.)
i know this sounds sorta fockin wierd but about 6 months ago I had a dream that I found an original, un-rigged, all white, 17 foot boat stuck away in someone's shop. Cool enough, not a cool as a sex dream, but pretty cool none the less.
Strange thing was that I knew the boat in the dream even though I've never owned that certain model. I've always liked the lines of it, nothing special, it had the old Tahiti bottom but the dash had a ton of crown to it and the sides of the hull were 'special' to that certain buider from back in the day.
A few months later I had almost the same dream, same hull stuck in the back of a shop and so on.
Had the same damn dream 2 weeks ago so I though just for the hell of it I'd do a little research.
The builder of the dream boat had long since gone out of the boat biz back in the mid 80's. By that time, after the crash of the late 70's he, like lots of other builders, shifted gears and started to build whatever kept the doors open. He was very successful in building non-marine parts, sold the biz to some other interests back in the late 80s who continue to run the shop to this day.
I found the phone number and gave them a call.
" I know this sounds funny but do you have any old boat stuff left over from the old days?"
"Si."
"Uh, what do you have?"
"Si."
"You have any hulls or molds laying around?"
"Si."
This went on for a while, his English was shitty and I flunked two straight years of Spanish in high school so we were going no where fast, but I did figure out that there was a few hulls and 'many' molds still on the property.
Now we were talkin', so today I gased up the '41 and went for a drive to check out this place. I have to admit, there were a few molds runnin' through my mind as I drove out there that I wouldn't mind having. Not that I want to get back in the boat deal, but it would be a blast to clean up a set and build one more boat.
When I pulled up in the driveway, there wasn't a boat mold or hull to be seen but I found my amigo and he took me back to the farthest corner of one of their buildings. This place is HUGE and it's been turned into chopper gun hell, some of the buildings were as big as a costo building and they were all full of parts and molds and workers.
But I'll be go to hell, as we walked into a dark building, I could see a few things that looked familar to me, a set of molds for some kinda small hull, an old hammered 22 foot cruiser that was half rigged and full of parts sitting on an old single axle trailer, and last but not least, almost the exact same boat that I saw in my dreams. The only difference being this one is an 18 footer and the one I wanted is 16 or 17 feet. This boat was the last one made from the molds and has been sitting inside, under a roof, on a dolly, since it was layed up in the late 70's. It was covered in fiberglass dust about 1/2 inch thick but you could see the sides of it and it has the typical 1970's look to the gel. It was layed up to be a I/O.
I couldn't believe it.
I asked about the molds and showed him pictures from old ads and pictures of friends boats from our family albums and he told me that I was 10 years too late. As they needed the room to store the other molds they make money out of, all the ones I liked were cut up and thrown away.
The shit's is it's not the hull I'm looking for, but on the other hand, it's a pretty cool find. I asked him what he wanted and was told to call back at the end of the week and he'd have a price.
Stupid dream. why couldn't I see the winning lottery numbers instead of an old boat...
Here's one picture. You can see just how much dust is on the deck, it almost completly covers any detail to it.
I haven't mentiond the builder or the name of his boats, I was just curious if anyone but me on the board remembered them? They were very popular, some were very fast (for the day) and some were raced. They were built from the early 60's to the mid 80's.
Anyone got a guess?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v210/flyin-t/xxx.jpg
Rich, I have no idea on the boat make, but that is a damn cool story.
?? Its now a chopper gun place. Must be Gaylord.
Don't know but please don't leave us in the dark. I used to go to the sanger shop across the street from the tahitian village on lakewood...v-drive
I always hate long posts, but I couldn't stop reading! Great story! Can't wait for the next chapter.
?? Its now a chopper gun place. Must be Gaylord.
Nope, but that's a hell of a guess.
Kona? In your travels, if you ever run across an all glass 17' Warren Hurricane flatboat, please let me know. Thank you!
I used to go to the sanger shop across the street from the tahitian village on lakewood...v-drive
You're at least heading in the right direction, and by that I mean going North on Lakewood blvd.
Saw Rick Nelson back in the late 70's one night play at the old Tahitian Village...another cool place that's no longer around. :cry:
Kona?
Nope, that's East.
Sidewinder
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